DeKALB, IL - The Northern Illinois University baseball team was held to two hits on Friday afternoon in a 7-0 loss to the Central Michigan Chippewas at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park.
 
Central Michigan (16-12, 6-4 MAC) opened the scoring in the top of the first. With two on and two out Garrett Navarra hit a single to right centerfield to bring home Justin Donahue, who reached base on a dropped third strike, to make the score 1-0.
 
NIU (5-23, 2-8 MAC) threatened to tie in the bottom of the first inning. Andre Demetral (Rochester, Mich./Florence Darling Tech) got the Huskies' first hit with a double to deep centerfield off CMU starting pitcher Adam Mrakitsch. After a strikeout, Colin Summerhill (Chicago, Ill./Troy) drew a walk to give the Huskies two runners on base with two down. Mrakitsch got Malik Peters (Calumet City, Ill./Mount Carmel) to ground out to end the inning.
 
Cole Prout extended the Chippewas lead to 2-0 in the top of the second when his double to left center brought in Christian Mitchelle who led off with a single. Dominic Hann (Washington, Mich./Michigan State) left Mitchelle at third by retiring the side. After allowing a leadoff walk to Tyler Thierry (Bloomington, Ill./Heartland CC), Mrakitsch retired eight straight batters before walking Thierry again with two outs in the fifth.
 
NIU's Mason Ruh (Milwaukee, Wis./Wisconsin Lutheran HS) entered the game from the bullpen in the fifth and kept the Chippewas in check for the next three innings. The sophomore allowed just one hit from the fifth through the seventh innings, striking out five Central Michigan batters.
 
"Mason was awesome," said head coach Mike Kunigonis. "We had two bloop hits that led to runs because we didn't catch popups. If we play routine defense, it's probably a one-run game today. Mason and Dominic did a fantastic job today. Mason competes on a day-in, day-out basis."
 
The Chippewas extended their lead in the top of the eighth. With runners at first and second and one away Nick Dardas singled to left field, scoring Mitchelle to put CMU ahead 3-0. Ruh struck out Justin Simpson for the second out, but Jacob Donahue reached on a single deep in the hole at shortstop to load the bases. Marquis Jackson drew a walk that scored Prout and put the score at 4-0.
 
NIU got its first hit since the first inning in the bottom of the eighth on a two-out base hit by Eric Erato (Sussex, Wis./Sussex Hamilton) off CMU reliever Michael Conte. Demetral kept the inning alive with a walk. Ryan Palmblad entered the game from the bullpen and got Aaron Harper (Hemet, Calif./Mt. San Jacinto CC) to fly out to end the inning. CMU added three more runs in the ninth to come away with the 7-0 win.
 
Mrakitsch struck out nine Huskies in seven innings to earn the win, allowing one hit and three walks.
 
NIU and Central Michigan play the second game of this weekend's series on Saturday, April 8 at 1 p.m.
 
--NIU--